August 13, 2018

It’s been over a year since Ajit Pai and the Federal Communications
Commission claimed that the agency’s comment filing system was
subjected to a cyberattack during the height of last year’s net
neutrality debate. But after waves of speculation from both the public
and Congress, the commission has finally come clean.

The idea that the crashing of the FCC commenting system was cause by “bots” never sat well with me. It seemed like an easy way for Chairman Ajit Pai to explain away the massive show of support in favor of keeping the Net Neutrality rules in place. It turns out that was exactly the case.

August 4, 2018

As heroes of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin suffered not just the
tragedy of their duel during the fall of the Republic, but also the
aftermath, almost two decades of living on opposite sides of the
galaxy-spanning war. So much has been written about them before, and
about how Palpatine slowly and subtly chipped away at Anakin’s trust
in the Jedi in general and Obi-Wan in particular.

The relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan is one of the great tragedies in the Star Wars universe. This article does a great job of exploring how that deteriorated over time and how Palpatine exploited it.

July 31, 2018

On August 3, 2001, a McDonald’s film crew arrived in the bustling
beach town of Westerly, Rhode Island. They carried their cameras and a
giant cashier’s check to a row of townhouses, and knocked on the door
of Michael Hoover. The 56-year-old bachelor had called a McDonald’s
hotline to say he’d won their Monopoly competition. […]

Like winning the Powerball, the odds of Hoover’s win were 1 in 250
million. There were two ways to win the Monopoly grand prize: find the
“Instant Win” game piece like Hoover, or match Park Place with the
elusive Boardwalk to choose between a heavily-taxed lump sum or
$50,000 checks every year for 20 years. […]

Inside Hoover’s home, Amy Murray, a loyal McDonald’s spokesperson,
encouraged him to tell the camera about the luckiest moment of his
life. Nervously clutching his massive check, Hoover said he’d fallen
asleep on the beach. When he bent over to wash off the sand, his
People magazine fell into the sea. He bought another copy from a
grocery store, he said, and inside was an advertising insert with the
“Instant Win” game piece. The camera crew listened patiently to his
rambling story, silently recognizing the inconsequential details found
in stories told by liars. They suspected that Hoover was not a lucky
winner, but part of a major criminal conspiracy to defraud the fast
food chain of millions of dollars. The two men behind the camera were
not from McDonald’s. They were undercover agents from the FBI.

This was a McSting.

This story is incredible. It’s not light reading by any stretch; you’re going to need to set aside a good 30 minutes to get through it, but it is quite the tale. By far the weirdest thing I’ve read in a long time.

July 28, 2018

Disney, which owns the Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel brands as well as
its own live-action and animation studios, will now add to its
portfolio the historic 20th Century Fox studio, which has produced
such classics as “The Sound of Music,” “Miracle on 34th Street,”
“Patton,” “Alien,” “Titanic,” “Avatar” and the original “Star Wars”
film.

This is huge. Disney now has even more content with which supply it’s streaming service. And as Mike notes, this also means that now Disney owns the rights to “Star Wars: A New Hope”, the only Star Wars film Disney didn’t receive with it’s purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012.

Marvel Studios will also get back the rights to the wildly popular X-Men and related characters. I’m sure Kevin Feige is has been hard at work figuring out how to roll them into the MCU since this deal was initiated last November.

July 28, 2018

The role of Leia Organa will once again be played by Carrie Fisher,
using previously unreleased footage shot for Star Wars: The Force
Awakens. “We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” says Abrams. “Finding
a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her
eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character.
With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie, we have
found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX
by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.

Along with Mark Hamill returning (Ghost Luke‽) and Billy Dee Williams reprising his role of Lando Calrissian, this little nugget was the most interesting. Fans, or at least I, had been wondering how they would handle the character of Princess Leia.

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July 27, 2018

The hype and expectations surrounding the Los Angeles Rams and starting quarterback Jared Goff in 2018 is pretty amazing considering where things were just a year ago.

Goff was the #1 overall draft pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and is now considered a sleeper candidate for MVP in the 2018 season. During a sit-down interview held Monday, July 9th, by Thuzio Executive Club, the young QB discussed his road to the NFL and how he’s able to persevere when things go badly.

forTurf Show Times

July 23, 2018

Los Angeles Rams CB Nickell Robey-Coleman proved to be arguably one of the best cornerbacks in the game last season. Playing in 15 games last season as a slot/nickel CB occasionally getting bumped to the outside, he made 49 tackles, two interceptions, had nine defended passes, and forced a fumble.

July 17, 2018

The company is beginning to license Chorus, the technology that
underpins the portfolio of sites it owns and operates, including
The Verge, Vox and Recode. The deals would allow other publishers
to use the technology for creating articles, monitoring readership
and distributing content on social-media platforms, among other
things, in exchange for a recurring fee.

Chorus is the platform I use over at Turf Show Times. This isn’t targeted at independent bloggers like yours truly, but this will be awesome for larger publishers who are looking for something better than WordPress or MovableType and have the money to cover the licensing fee.

July 14, 2018

The Energy and Commerce Committee today sent letters to Apple CEO
Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Larry Page to probe the companies’
representation of third-party access to consumer data, and the
collection and use of audio recording data as well as location
information via iPhone and Android devices.

I think the government is going to find out just how different these two companies’ views on privacy really are.

July 14, 2018

Replays also don’t always tell you the whole story. Slow-motion
video can’t guarantee a clear sense of impact or intentionality.
It doesn’t help that many professional players have spent a lifetime
training themselves in the art of deceit, making what is often
deliberate look like an accident—an elbow “accidentally” touches the
opponent’s neck, a defender “accidentally” loses balance and falls
on the striker’s rib cage.

These complications pale in comparison to the fact that deceit is
woven into the fabric of the game. Soccer, as a sport, has no
interest in being morally upright, or even fair. A game in which so
many events occur—22 players chasing a ball over a huge field for
about 90 minutes—and only one event (the ball in the net) truly
counts seems, in fact, sadistically and delightfully bent on being
unfair. The setup incentivizes players to do everything they can to
manipulate all the minor events that might lead to scoring.

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July 7, 2018

When Los Angeles Rams K Greg Zuerlein went for surgery on a herniated disc in his back last year, the Rams were in a uniquely tough spot.

It was late December. They had two games left in the regular season. The playoffs loomed. The team had to find a replacement for a kicker on pace to break the single season scoring record. With little time and slim pickings late in the season, they turned to undrafted, untested and unemployed K Sam Ficken.

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July 5, 2018

Los Angeles Rams QB Brandon Allen was originally drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 6th round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He spent that season as the third string quarterback behind QB Blake Bortles and QB Chad Henne, but he was waived in the roster cuts heading into 2017 and the the Rams grabbed him the following day. Allen would once again spend the season as the QB3 this time behind QB Jared Goff and QB Sean Mannion. He didn’t take a regular season snap having been placed on injured reserve with a back injury prior to the Week 17 game against the San Francisco 49ers where he likely would have seen some game time.

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July 3, 2018

In 2016 Nate Holly was a promising Safety from Kent State. In three consecutive seasons, Nate ranked #1 in the MAC in solo tackles. He was considered a top 10 safety and looking like a favorite as a mid-round pick, but then legal issues got in the way. He ultimately cleared his name, but the damage had been done. He missed the final four games of his senior season and didn’t get invited to the Senior Bowl or the NFL Combine because of character concerns. The 2017 draft came and went, and no one called his name.